Broadly speaking, Virginia has performed well. This is the No. 10 team in the country for a reason. However, in a strange twist, the Cavaliers (29-15, 12-11 ACC) have been prone to the occasional blowout loss — as seen against Charlotte and Boston College.
One of those happened Saturday.
In game two of a weekend series at Pitt, Virginia lost 11-0 in a mercy-rule defeat. The Panthers (27-14, 9-11 ACC) won the series against the Cavaliers for the first time since 2023.
“Credit to Pitt,” Coach Chris Pollard said postgame. “They played really well. Their offense is really, really good. One of the best in the country.”
It was an ugly defeat for Virginia. After four innings of play, Pitt led 11-0 while the Cavaliers had mustered just one hit in response. That sole hit came from junior first baseman Sam Harris, who was caught stealing — so no Virginia player reached second base in the first four frames. The game concluded after seven innings.
The Panthers were raking. However, the Cavaliers did themselves no favors when freshman outfielder Griffin Enis failed to track down a catchable fly ball in right field, and the ball landed well behind him. Already down by five before the miscue, Enis’ strange mistake led to two runs for Pitt, and nearly a third before junior catcher Jake Weatherspoon made a perfect tag to nail a runner at home.
The blowout was especially costly for Virginia because it used a host of crucial pitchers in what quickly became an unfixable deficit.
“Just can’t give an offense that's that good, top to bottom, a lot of free bases to go with the way they swing bats,” Pollard said. “They capitalized on it and we were playing uphill the rest of the day.”
Junior ace Kyle Johnson was tagged with the loss — he gave up seven earned runs in two innings, tossing 78 pitches in the process. Then came sophomore Max Stammel, another frequent starter. Stammel gave up two earned runs in one inning of work. Pollard then turned to freshman star Noah Yoder, even though the game was well out of reach by that point. Yoder mirrored Stammel’s line of two earned runs, three hits and a walk in just one inning.
Up next came freshman reliever Christian Lucarelli, who fared no better than those who came before him. Virginia’s bizarre struggles extended to its uniforms — Lucarelli wore No. 57 Saturday, as the broadcast team said he said he did not have his usual No. 46. This was not elaborated upon, but unconventional nonetheless.
Thankfully for the Cavaliers, Lucarelli’s jersey switchup was the only blemish on his afternoon. Lucarelli, a Pennsylvania native, was the first Virginia pitcher to keep the Panthers off the scoreboard for an inning. Junior Drew Koenen came on in the sixth inning and also kept the scoreboard clean.
Last weekend, Virginia’s pitchers allowed 13 runs against Clemson in three games. The Cavaliers allowed 16 against Pitt in just two games. Saturday was disastrous for the Cavalier arms — but the offense may have struggled worse.
Virginia only had two baserunners total, one of which was a walk drawn by senior outfielder Harrison Didawick. The Cavaliers finished the game with just one hit. Virginia entered Saturday averaging 9.55 hits per game. Meanwhile, seven different Panthers recorded at least one hit.
The goal now for the Cavaliers now is to avoid a series sweep Sunday. In order to do so, Virginia must be the buffalo, abandoning Saturday’s result and focusing solely on the series finale.
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